Dispensary Profile: Euphoria, The First MMJ Shop in Las Vegas, Shifts to Adult Use

The first medical marijuana dispensary to open in Las Vegas has been selling adult-use cannabis since last July, and is learning how to balance the desires of their clientele with the demands of the many investors in the Las Vegas cannabis scene.

It’s been nearly eight months since Euphoria Wellness opened their doors to all adults over the age of 21. The dispensary opened in the suburbs of Las Vegas on August 24, 2015, and has been steadily cementing their place as one of the most renowned shops in the legendary tourist town ever since.

Euphoria’s team came to Las Vegas a few years ago to open a medical marijuana dispensary, after gaining years of industry experience in Montana. This history provided them with a solid footing to jump through all the hoops Nevada’s regulatory bodies put in front of them. In the end, Euphoria won the race and was the first dispensary to open for medical sales in the Las Vegas area.

When adult-use sales commenced in Nevada last summer, Euphoria was more than ready. This week, Cannabis Now spoke with Sahil Mehta, one of Euphoria’s business directors, about what the last year has been like as they’ve adjusted to the demands of one of the biggest recreational cannabis market in the world.

“It’s been a lot more than I anticipated,” said Mehta. “When we went from our Montana operation to this Vegas operation, we had to adjust to both a lot of rules and regulations and a lot of investor types. Appeasing everybody has been key.”

Mehta believes what the industry’s cannabis enthusiasts want from a dispensary might not be exactly what the investors want, so there’s often a tit-for-tat battle. “That part has been a fine line to walk, but other than that it’s just been an insane learning experience,” he said. “When we did open, it took a lot of time to just get all the regulations together, then our first grow and then getting everything to pass testing.”

Las Vegas sees 40 times the entire population of Montana in tourists every year. Mehta said it was a challenge adjusting to the new volume of both customers and people on staff.

In a unique twist, Euphoria had a fully trained staff working at their adult use dispensary for almost two months before they could sell their first flower out of there. This was partially because the flower wasn’t ready, but also because they had to demonstrate to the state that the dispensary was ready to operate and they could feasibly take people through. The expense and overhead of that alone was crazy, Mehta said, but they had a plan.

“We were mainly focused on the cultivation and we built it from the ground up,” said Mehta. “We had to basically take the information we knew from Montana and apply it to so many more rules and regulations than Montana.”

After a few months of selling other people’s flower, Euphoria was able to release their own flower brand, Summa Cannabis. While it may be a drier climate for growing compared to the Emerald Triangle, no mistake about it, there is great pot in Vegas. Mehta went over Summa’s process in selecting high-end strains for the demanding market.

“Six cuts were donated to us,” Mehta said. “It was a variety pack of two indicas, two sativas and two hybrids — ones that were all similar in [growth time] so we could get going. Other than that, we started with Rare Dankness, Bodhi Seeds, Dark Horse Genetics and a couple other things. We’re just pheno-hunting all the time.”

Summa currently has about thirty strains they’re trying to dial in. “I don’t know how many other cultivators in town are working with that number of strains, but we definitely have a lot of variety,” said Mehta.

The most popular strain has proven to be Mother’s Milk. “Our Mother’s Milk cut is super fire, it’s testing really high — 26 percent all the time,” said Mehta. “The flavor is there, the potency is there and the production is there.”

Cannabis Now had the pleasure of trying a full spread of strains from Summa Cannabis and they did not disappoint. One of the big standouts for us was their rendition of Brothers Grimm’s fantastic Killer Queen. The Cinderella 99 x G13 cross has a full-bodied cerebral high that won’t put you down. Summa also provided a solid Superman OG, a bit more on the earthy side than the gassy side, but nevertheless solid cannabis.

Summa is also well-stocked with the classics, and we tried a few of them. Their Sour Diesel will fill your fuel needs and their Erkel checks off the purple box. Finally, like anyone with their head on straight, they have a good Girl Scout Cookies phenotype — but they got it from Colorado and not San Francisco.